Turkish tea company Çaykur opens first factory in northern Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - Turkey's state-run tea company, Çaykur, has opened a factory in Mansehra, around 200 kilometers from the capital Islamabad.

The company’s chairman, Imdat Sütlüoğluu, along with Yusuf Zafar, the head of Pakistan's Agricultural Research Council, and Farrukh Hamid, the head of Pakistan's National Tea and High Value Crops Research Institute, participated in the opening ceremony.

Calling it a 'small gift' for Pakistan, Sütlüoğlu told the media that the factory would have a daily production capacity of five tons. Although Pakistanis consume a lot of tea, they are importing tea, he said, adding that the idea of opening a factory came from Pakistan itself.

According to official data, Pakistan spent over 23 billion Pakistani rupees (around $220 million) on tea imports during the first six months of 2017. The South Asian country imports tea from 16 countries.

Over the past two decades, the country's tea imports have ballooned over 325 percent.

https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/business/34-pakistanis-purchase-tea-on-brand-popularity/

Turkey is ready to support Pakistan on tea saplings as well, according to Mr Sütlüoğlu.

After the opening ceremony, high-quality tea saplings brought from Turkey were planted in the factory garden.

Last August, Turkey donated an automatic tea-processing plant to Pakistan to support high-tech tea cultivation.

Çaykur is involved in 38 countries in Europe, 37 in Africa, 15 in Asia, 14 in the Mideast, and six in the Americas.

Çaykur, founded in 1983, is a state-owned enterprise, and its processed-tea products include white, green, black, organic, leaf, and iced tea. It employs more than 10,600 people in its 56 factories.